I'm not too upset about this; he mostly just says the design doesn't excite him and that it's not fun to drive. I largely feel that way about my Liftback but that's not why I bought it. The worst part of his review is dissing the owners; that WAS beyond the pale and totally unnecessary. This guy obviously doesn't understand why people buy hybrids so screw what he thinks. He doesn't get it but we shouldn't care. It was a cheap shot review that shows he's a hack of a journalist that viewers shouldn't take seriously.
According to Toyota USA's market research, many Prius owners do describe their car as "fun". When Toyota drilled deeper on that unexpected response, they found that the "fun" was how the Prius is like a video game that rewards good driving. Not "fun" as in "sideways" or "until someone loses an eye." (Source: Robert Llewellyn's CarPool "Doug Coleman new Prius CarPool", in particular from 13.40.)
I agree. Imagine you're said journalist and two cars are coming in for review that day; a Porsche and a Toyota. You pull straws to see who gets which and you get the short straw and have to review the Toyota - you're not going to be happy. Here in the UK the Prius was recently voted best car by its owners, who highly rated its ride comfort, YET the very magazine that ran this survey rated the ride quality as 2/5 saying it was too smooth and not hard enough. Hmmm, so the people want a smooth, soft and comfortable ride and the journos want something hard so they can throw it around corners. Personally I think motoring journos are now way out of touch.
i always listen to, and research peoples opinions when contemplating an interest or decision in something. but in the end it's me who makes the choice.